shrew
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Post by shrew on Sept 5, 2014 20:33:42 GMT
Hi all I started posting on here when I was first diagnosed with adhd but my flakiness got the better of me and i stopped hoping to give the forum another shot though, so hopefully will have more staying power this time As the post title suggests, it's not just my personality that's flaky - I have a weird compulsion/addiction for picking my skin, and was wondering if anyone else does this? I don't usually realise i'm doing it - i'll go into a trance while my fingers search my scalp/lips to find any bits of loose skin/scabs to pick off (sorry for being gross ) - if there's nothing pickable then quite often i'll end up damaging my skin to create a scab that can be harvested later, or start searching in my ears/face/arms until i can find something to satisfy the urge I often catch myself doing it in meetings, in front of my boss mid-conversation, in shops, etc, and will stop myself temporarily - only to find my fingers burrowing around on my scalp minutes later! i've done this ever since i can remember, but unfortunately i think my stimulant meds seem to make it worse. i have found a temporary solution by getting acrylic nails as the thickness of them it makes it almost impossible to pick, so thought i'd share this in case others have this trait - although fake nails might not so helpful for the guys! does anyone else do this? x
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Post by petra on Sept 5, 2014 20:57:05 GMT
Hi shrew and welcome back I used to be terrible for skin picking when I was younger - I'd forgotten about that - especially the soles of my feet after a bath!! I recently bought some stress balls which are quite helpful...I use a smaller one on the odd occasions I'm 'out in public' so as for it not to be noticeable! Also, I find wearing a pendant or some jewellery I can fiddle with helps.
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Post by mighty on Sept 6, 2014 0:14:37 GMT
Yeah I've done this quite a lot. Are you on medication? Concerta makes me do this more
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Post by carly31 on Sept 6, 2014 8:51:19 GMT
Not skin. But I do split ends on my hair! Can spend hours in a trance just picking broken hair! It's highly addictive :-(
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kardrath
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Post by kardrath on Sept 6, 2014 17:23:44 GMT
I pick at the skin around my fingers a lot. The concerta seems to have made that a little worse.
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Post by astraka on Sept 7, 2014 9:31:23 GMT
I do it. Meetings, dinner table, whatever. Ugh, I'm doing it as soon as I stop typing. I think acrylic nails are a brilliant idea. I also find that having a nice rounded polished stone in my hand helps
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shrew
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Post by shrew on Sept 7, 2014 9:41:51 GMT
i'm on instant release mph and it definitely seems to make it worse, concerta did too! think the benefits of being medicated are still outweighing the negatives but we shall see... my fake nails make it very hard to type on a keyboard but they definitely seem to have broken the picking cycle, so i'd recommend it as a solution to anyone who needs to give their skin a break! thanks for replying
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 21:49:19 GMT
when I was about 5 or 6, I used to pick (dig, perhaps) a hole between my eyebrows.. I don't know how it started (spot or scratch or what), but for a couple of years I had a big scab there.. had almost forgotten about that (saw a photo recently)
I think one of my parents slightly thoughtlessly said that hairs would grow out of it if I did that.. so of course, I succeeded in remembering to hold off for 5 mins til i would slyly and gladly slip back into it. But 'now', I'd get nightmares that one day I was going to wake up looking like a gorilla (naturally I never communicated this to anyone..)
I don't think I did similar for the next 5 years or so, but early secondary school, I started picking my finger (regularly drawing blood.. enjoying the sensation of the pick, and marvelling at how scratchy the ruptured skin felt dragged scratchy side/backwards across my lower lip)... in the following 25 years, i think there might be perhaps 2 years worth when I haven't done this.. always the same finger (although I 'enjoy' keeping my cuticles in order on the other fingers too)... The few times I've remembered to ensure a plaster was on it at ALL times, for at least 3 or 4 days, and it cleared up... it has thus far always migrated down again from cuticle pruning at some later date.
Equasym (slightly less extended-release than Concerta) seems to have made the tendencies/vigour worse, although I seem to be slightly better at noticing and controlling it.. so neutral so far on balance.
I think it's connected to a kind of physical presence anxiety developed around about age 6 (also never communicated til about 3 months ago)..around being tall, and equating this with being stupid (see most cartoons etc, perhaps less so nowadays).. made worse (or caused by) being (as I see it now) undiagnosed ADHD, so now that school was about sitting down, I couldn't think straight when working/speaking in class etc.. I'd have given anything to be small (I'm male, which probably makes it more un-understandable).. I think I knew on an intellectual level that - if I could prevent myself from being big, it wouldn't actually make me smarter.. but there's much more to us than an intellect innit.
Main line of attach atm is trying to reclaim my space somehow (haven't devised a plan yet - naturally).. but if I can feel reasonably comfortable that I have a right to be physically there (near other human beings eg), maybe I can break it... maybe I can apply my attention to something more worthwhile, rather than having to direct them onto something I know i can dependablty stay focused on (chewing myself).. I'm also trying to (re-)take up knitting... but the needles and wool I've borrowed off my mum aren't ideal for hot sticky man hands.. I'm sure most readers of this will excuse the semi-hidden excuse makings
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Post by contrarymary on Sept 8, 2014 7:27:21 GMT
i picked the skin at the side of my nails for years and years..... and had forgotten about the soles of my feet after a bath until petra mentioned it . and scabs. and it was only when i read about shrew always having hands that trawl around looking for something to pick that i realised that's exactly what i was doing as i read it! i wonder if it is to with undiagnosed adhd. i now find that when i have to concentrate on something for a while in public - a film, a meeting, a play, a talk - if i have something to fiddle with then i take in a lot more and am able to concentrate and remember. so i always have a bag of scrap string with me and plait it - weird but it works. and keeps most tics at bay too.
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shrew
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Post by shrew on Sept 8, 2014 19:55:09 GMT
@imatwiwt - I suffer from anxiety too, which maybe explains why it's worse when i'm in public/social situations as that's when it's worst. having something to occupy hands with does sound like a good idea - i tried knitting too, but unfortunately as with most hobbies, i never manage to learn a new skill unless i can be good at it straight away! (i never learned to ride a bike for the same reason - I'm 29!!) contrarymary - i sometimes find the opposite - i often zone out of whatever is going on, especially if i can feel a scab on my head that's ready for picking, i won't be able to focus on the conversation until i've got it!
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Post by mypineappledream on Sept 8, 2014 21:48:06 GMT
I do this all the time, it makes my acne a lot worse.. ugh. I try not to, have told people in school to tell me when I do so I can stop it. I guess one have to find a good substitution like a stress ball, knitting or something else to occupy one’s hands/mind.
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Post by computermandan on Sept 9, 2014 10:01:24 GMT
I chew the inside of my mouth a lot... all around the inside of my lips etc - it's a mess good job no one can see... seem to do it in line with focusing hard on something...
been known to aggressively chew my tongue too - so much that my kids ask me for some chewing gum and my wife reacts in disgust... lol thinking about it has set me off now.
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Post by supine on Sept 9, 2014 18:44:40 GMT
I don't know that Concerta has made it worse, but I've always done this. I still have the scars on my arms from when I had chicken pox as a child and would literally drag my nails up and down my arms. These days it's mostly small 'pip' spots that I squeeze, then of course they leave a slightly larger scab to pick later At one point my wife pointed out to me that I was 'self-harming' again - and thinking about it that sounds about right. It's pretty low level self-harming, but that is what it is.
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shrew
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Posts: 39
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Post by shrew on Sept 13, 2014 1:49:17 GMT
mypineappledream - I tried to get people stop me too but it makes the compulsion to pick even stronger! I was way too ashamed to tell people at school - it sounds as though you must have some pretty good friends if you're able to be open about this - hold on to them! X
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